Kevin Duffy: Newsome piles on yardage, history at Ansonia

Updated 12:45 am, Sunday, September 1, 2013

Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome carries the ball during the Class S state football championship game against North Branford Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn.
Photo: Autumn Driscoll

Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome fends off North Branford's Dale Hausman during the Class S state football championship game Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn.
Photo: Autumn Driscoll

Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome carries the ball into the endzone as North Branford's Alex McGuigan defends during the Class S state football championship game Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn.
Photo: Autumn Driscoll

Ansonia's Arkeel Newsome carries the ball into the endzone as North...

Ansonia's #2 Arkeel Newsome makes his way to the endzone for a touchdown as several Woodland players fail to catch him, during NVL football championship action action in Waterbury, Conn. on Thursday November 14, 2012.
Photo: Christian Abraham

ANSONIA -- The trophy case at Ansonia High is much like the town itself: a century of football tradition is condensed into three glass squares, the trophies cluttered together like the houses in this little industrial community.

Amid all the gold in the case, there are two photos -- Vincent Drake, class of 1949, posing on a knee, and Alex Thomas, class of 2007, shaking hands with Roger Goodson, an All-Stater in 1942.

Alex Thomas rushed for more yards than anyone in the history of Connecticut high school football. Alex Thomas is fully prepared to relinquish that distinction.

"Well, it's pretty much going to happen; it's pretty much guaranteed," Thomas said. "It's in the past, and we had a great run. I'm happy for him. He's a good kid and he's worked hard."

He is Arkeel Newsome, the latest and, statistically, the greatest in a long line of Ansonia running backs. He's the catalyst for a pair of 14-0 seasons in 2011 and 2012, and the workhorse once again this year. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, though. When he's wearing a T-Shirt and gym shorts, Newsome blends in. He's 5-foot-8 and isn't overly muscular; no puffed-out chest or bulging arms. He's reserved in nature, his voice soft and his sentences short.

And then you watch him run.

Twisting and turning and cutting and generally just accelerating past defenses in a gear unfamiliar to most humans, Newsome, who has committed to play at UConn, enters his senior year with 6,805 career rushing yards, according to the Connecticut High School football record book. Thomas' total is 8,279 yards, leaving Newsome 1,474 to break the record.

"I think he's going to take it to another level -- if that's possible," Ansonia coach Tom Brockett said.

Since Brockett became coach in 2006, he's been blessed with college-level tailbacks: Thomas, who went to Yale; Tristan Roberts, who played at Monmouth; and Montrell Dobbs, a one-time UConn commit who landed at Temple (he's no longer enrolled) after a 3,445-yard, 40-touchdown senior campaign that was actually topped by Newsome the following season.

"We're like the Alabama of the north -- a running back factory," Dobbs said. "It's crazy because people think Ansonia goes looking for players, but in all honesty we all just ended up there."

Newsome's three predecessors were homegrown, raised in the working-class town of 19,000 residents and 18 football state championships. The kid who is about to break all of their records was not.

No, Newsome grew up in Waterbury, terrorizing the Ansonia Pop Warner programs the same way his sharp cutbacks and unparalleled speed terrorize the Waterbury high schools today. As a kid, he knew little of Ansonia's tradition, but he trusted his eyes when he saw the Chargers rip Kennedy High "something like 70-0" in the single Ansonia game he attended.

So, before ninth grade, Newsome moved from Waterbury to Ansonia with his second cousin, Chargers quarterback Jai'Quan McKnight, and McKnight's father. Both Newsome and McKnight cite the school as a reason for the move. Let's just say Ansonia's football tradition didn't hurt, either: The Chargers have won 21 NVL championships since 1976; the three Waterbury public schools have combined for zero.

"My uncle thought I could have a better future here," Newsome said.

As word spread of Newsome's move, the Ansonia middle-schoolers who were unaware of the electrifying tailback soon learned. Ryan Hovan, today the anchor of the Chargers offensive line, found Internet highlights from the 2010 Eastbay Youth All-American Bowl, which featured the nation's top middle school talent (two running backs on Newsome's East squad are headed to Georgia and Oklahoma). In that game, Newsome fielded a kickoff at his own 18-yard line, drifted to the right, placed his hand on his lead blocker's back and made one devastating cut, reversing field and out-sprinting everyone to the end zone.

"I remember watching that video," Hovan said, "and realizing that this kid was the real deal."

Watch him and you'll agree: Newsome's highlight tape depicts him turning NVL games into his own personal track meets. Even when he's swarmed by a premier defense, as he was in Friday's scrimmage against West Haven, gang-tackles are required. He's slippery in between the tackles, instinctively spinning the moment he receives a delayed handoff on one play. On another, when he gets to the edge, he leaves his feet to avoid one tackler and jukes two more as soon as he hits the ground.

It's when he's in the open field that Arkeel Newsome becomes damn-near impossible.

"His quickness on a cut is second to none," Brockett said.

"The way he makes moves on people, you can't teach it," said his fullback, Saiheed Sanders.

"Arkeel defines `speed kills,'" said former Bethel linebacker Brian Birdsell, who had the pleasure of chasing him around in a mud-soaked 2011 Class M quarterfinal.

"With the poor traction, he was our worst nightmare," Birdsell continued. "Our D-line and linebackers learned very quickly that if he had just a one-foot gap, he would streak 60-70 yards through the center of a defense."

Newsome rushed for 303 that afternoon. The next week, he rushed for 321 against Berlin. Then 364 in the title game, pushing his season total to 3,763. If it's possible, his stats elicit more of an "Oh my God!" reaction than his runs.

"Unbelievable," Hovan said. "Like it's a joke."

"It's like, `Is this serious?'" Thomas added.

Entering his junior season, Newsome was on pace to break a national rushing record that stood for 59 years, but an ankle injury cost him two games, "limiting" him to 2,242 yards and 41 touchdowns. The new record, set last fall by current Alabama freshman Derrick Henry, is more than 5,000 yards out of reach.

"I think it would have been a great thing if I did get the national record," Newsome said, "but I'm not too mad that I didn't get it."

Here's what he can get: With exactly 2,000 yards, he'll eclipse Emmitt Smith's high school total. With 3,000, Newsome will have the seventh-best career rushing total in history, according to the National High School football record book. With 40 touchdowns, he'll finish in the top five all-time for scoring (he already holds the state record with 119 TDs).

It's mind-boggling: In the past two state playoffs -- that's six games -- Newsome has totaled 1,518 yards and 24 touchdowns. Both would be single-season records at most schools. At Ansonia, that doesn't even crack the top 10.

At Ansonia, it's so hard to make history because history has set the bar so high. The Chargers have won 745 games, the most of any program in Connecticut. They have 17 undefeated seasons packed into that trophy case, more than twice the total of anyone else.

But when's the last time Ansonia stayed unbeaten for three straight years?

"I don't know," Newsome conceded.

That's a question for the native Ansonian.

"Never," said Hovan, who has been attending Chargers games all his life.

So, yes, 2013 could be momentous in this football-crazy town, where Arkeel Newsome has stopped by to pile up yardage and pile on to history.